I used Acrobat XI (the latest evaluation version) to create a document with two certificate-based signatures. For some reason, when viewing the document in Acrobat XI or Reader X, the following warning is displayed between the signatures on the Signatures panel:

1 Miscellaneous Change(s)

Left-clicking or right-clicking on the warning does nothing, and no further details about the changes are provided on signature properties dialogs either.

Could you let me know how can I overcome reporting this warning please? I didn't alter the document between signings, so I am fairly sure that no changes were introduced to it. I am attaching a screen capture of what I'm concerned about. Just let me know if you need the document itself, and I'll be happy to send it over.

Creating the second signature field is being counted as a change. A quick way around this is to sign the document twice (as you did), then right-click on each signature field and select "Clear Signature". Save the document, then send it out for signing. As long as users click on those existing signature fields to sign it, you will avoid the "miscellaneous changes" message.

Thank you for the clarification and a suggestion how to overcome the issue. Still there is a question as to why signing an empty field is not counted as a change, while adding a brand new signature (without altering the document in any other way) is.

I am worrying that our users will be frightened by the 'miscellaneous change' message (at least until they have a clear explanation that the 'change' is only related to the signature), so we will probably end up employing the empty fields-based solution... which also has certain lacks. In general case we don't know the number of signers beforehand, so we will have to create a dedicated page with 6-8 empty fields to cover for the maximal number of signers. Next, as far as I understand, the document can be signed by anyone if it contains unsigned fields, - in other words, say, the 3rd signer can't prevent the document with 8 unsigned fields from being signed for 5 more times in future (as he would normally do by 'locking the document after signing'), can he?

I initially thought it would be preferable to allow brand new signatures without such a warning, but on reflection I can see ways it could be creatively abused to "edit" the document.

Next, as far as I understand, the document can be signed by anyone if it contains unsigned fields, - in other words, say, the 3rd signer can't prevent the document with 8 unsigned fields from being signed for 5 more times in future (as he would normally do by 'locking the document after signing'), can he?

This is consistent with what I've seen as well; the "lock document" option only appears when signing the last remaining signature field. Having the option to lock it early sounds like a good candidate for a feature request.

Your concerns are reasonable, indeed the signing instrument can potentially be used for changing the way the document is rendered, and 'edit' it in this way, and there is actually nothing wrong if this fact is reported to the user. Yet the major thing I'm looking for here is clarity. Specifically, a '1 signature widget was added' seems a way better comment to me rather than an abstract '1 miscellaneous change' entry.

For what it's worth, it's possible to preconfigure digital signature fields so only certain people are allowed to sign them. This obviously won't work in cases where you need to allow anyone to sign, but if you have a known set of users it might be helpful.

This message is not very helpful for our customers as well. Most are confused about the miscellaneous comment (in case of multiple signatures). It needs a better description of the change instead of the current miscellaneous message.